Need "length of pull" on Nano, Shield, and P290RS

This is a discussion on Need "length of pull" on Nano, Shield, and P290RS within the Defensive Carry Guns forums, part of the Defensive Carry Discussions category; My wife is new to shooting, just got her CHL, and we're shopping for a 9mm single stack pistol for her.
She has fired a ...

Need "length of pull" on Nano, Shield, and P290RS

My wife is new to shooting, just got her CHL, and we're shopping for a 9mm single stack pistol for her.

She has fired a J frame and a number of pistols, and is deadly with my 1911, despite her petite frame. For various reasons we've narrowed our decision matrix down to the Beretta Nano, S&W Shield, and Sig P290RS. Her experience so far indicates that the deciding factor, after appropriate size/weight for concealed carry, is "length of pull", or the distance from the trigger to the top of the grip backstrap. Her very small hands are the problem. For instance, on my remarkably reliable Kahr P9, the trigger is a bit of a reach and her grip migrates as she fires it to the point where the beavertail impacts her big thumb knuckle on recoil and is quite painful after a few shots. I'm sure if she spent hours a day on hand strenghening exercises and shooting the gun she could overcome this problem, but those thing ain't gonna happen.

I live in a small town where it's not easy to get her hands on pistols to check for proper fit and feel. However, we'll soon be taking a lengthy road trip and I've already Googled up enough Cabelas/Academy/Gander Mountain/Bass Pro Shop stores that we should be able to handle all three of these pistols. However, I'd like to have a critical piece of information to "preload" our shopping, and that is the "length of pull".

So, could any of you who actually own one or more of these pistols or who work in a gun shop where you can do this please measure the distance from the middle of the trigger to the top of the backstrap (the shortest distance from the trigger to the backstrap) and post it here?

PLEASE don't hijack this thread by immediately starting a discussion of the three pistols that I'm asking about. I'm no stranger to firearms, I've read a bazillion posts on all manner of single stack 9mm pistols, watched a mind-numbing number of videos, and I own two such handguns. So, please bear with me and stay on topic. (No, we don't want a .380).

HOWEVER, once the critical dimension is posted for the three subject pistols, then feel free to hijack away!!!

Just by feel...lenght of pull...are you talking about how long the trigger pull is until the pistol fires or how far the trigger is from the back strap? I've been rented these guns to see what I want next...The Shield has the shortest trigger pull till it fires.....The Nano seems longer and the Sig 290 is the longest and heaviest.

The Kahr PM/CM 9 would be a top consideration except for one other limitation that I failed to mention. We're in our 60's, my wife is a petite lady with some arthritis in her hands, and she can't consistently rack the slide on my P9. I've read numerous posts about men having having difficulty racking the slide on the smaller Kahrs. She's tried all the tips she found posted on the web and it's still a problem. (I'm getting damned tired of watching youtube videos....). She racks the slide my 1911 by cocking the hammer first, and then it's no problem.

I thought I'd blathered on all too long in my original post to just ask a simple question, so I didn't mention either the racking problem or the fact that we had managed to get her hands on a Nano and a pre-RS SigP290 at a gun show we went to on a recent trip out of town. She could rack the slide on those pistols just fine. However, it wasn't until we'd returned home and she got in some more range time that we realized that racking wasn't the only problem. Thus the reason for my perhaps overwrought original post.

I have given a lot of thought to a .380, but any casual perusal of factory ballistics tables illustrates the .380s very significant reduction in muzzle energy compared to even a standard pressure 9mm, all for a relatively minor reduction in pistol size. To avoid hijacking my own thread, let me say that we are still considering a .380, and I have been looking at numerous discussions of these pistols on the web (but no youtube videos.....yet).

Thanks for all the replies so far. I really like this forum, and out of all the concealed carry and pistol related forums that I've visited on the web I figured that this was the best place to post my question.

Just by feel...lenght of pull...are you talking about how long the trigger pull is until the pistol fires or how far the trigger is from the back strap? I've been rented these guns to see what I want next...The Shield has the shortest trigger pull till it fires.....The Nano seems longer and the Sig 290 is the longest and heaviest.

Sorry that I wasn't clear. This is the distance with the trigger in its most forward position. That's the position that will determine how she initially grips the pistol.

Just as some reference numbers on the guns I have...(from top of back strap to middle of trigger, aka shortest distance between back strap and front of trigger in forward position)
Kahr CM9: 2.43"
LCP: 2.5"
G26: 2.75"

Well, thanks for all the help, but I think I finally found some answers to my question on gunblast.com. As part of his review routine, this guy (Jeff Quinn) measures and weighs pistols rather than accept factory figures. One his measurements is "trigger reach", and he shows:

Nano - 2.6"
P290RS - 2.56"
Shield - 2.71"

I really like Quinn's reviews and have been to his site often; my only reservation is that he seems short on criticism - he seems to have never met a gun he didn't like.

As pointed out above, it really boils down to the pistol that feels the best in my wife's hand, provided she can reliably rack the slide.